I write short emails. If you’ve ever gotten an email from me, you know it is true. So, you can imagine my pleasure at see this recent article in the Huffington Post by Alexis Kleinman recommending that you “emulate the super-successful and never send a long email.”
As CEO and chief bottle washer at Fourlane, I don’t have time to write, let alone read, long emails. I’m often between meetings and reading emails on my phone. My first instinct is to glance at the length of the email. Short emails, I can answer. Long emails I skip, waiting until I am back at my desk to answer it. If I am traveling or at a client’s site, getting an answer to a long email may take a while.
Take this article’s advice:
- Use the subject line to get your ideas across or question out.
- Don’t include a huge amount of background—if the reader has a questions, she’ll ask it.
- Always think about the busy schedule of your reader when writing an email.
As I pointed out to the Fourlane team, short emails aren’t rude; they’re just efficient!
